Truss needs chance to settle in, says Leadsom

Conservative former minister Dame Andrea Leadsom has said Liz Truss “needs a chance to settle in” amid criticism of her leadership.

The Prime Minister has come under intense pressure from Tory MPs to abandon her economic plan following a market backlash to the measures.

However, former energy secretary Dame Andrea said Ms Truss must be given a chance to “get things under control”.

Picking up her damehood at Buckingham Palace on Thursday, she told the PA news agency: “I think we all have to give the Prime Minister a chance to settle in.

“There’s been a huge amount of turmoil over the last few weeks within the nation, and the Prime Minister must be given a chance to get things under control and start to make progress on what is a very important agenda of growing the economy.”

Dame Andrea, who initially backed Penny Mordaunt in the Conservative Party leadership contest in the summer, said the investiture was a refreshing break from the busy morning in Westminster.

It came amid questions about Ms Truss’s leadership after little more than a month in the job.

Pressure has been ramped up on the Government since its mini-budget, due to days of turmoil on the financial markets, a fall in the value of the pound and rises in the cost of borrowing and mortgage rates.

At a meeting of the backbench 1922 Committee in Westminster on Wednesday, Commons Education Committee chairman Robert Halfon told Ms Truss she had “trashed the last 10 years of workers’ Conservatism”.

However, supporters have insisted her tax-cutting, pro-growth agenda must be allowed to progress.